Congressional Reports

Congressional Reports, 104th Congress to Present

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About Congressional Reports

What are Congressional Reports?

Congressional Reports originate from congressional committees and deal with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. Congressional Reports, along with Congressional Documents, are part of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set , commonly referred to as the Serial Set.

What is available?

• govinfo contains select House, Senate, executive, and conference reports from the 104th Congress (1995-96) forward. Additional documents from previous congresses are also available.
• The system is updated irregularly for the current Congress, as digital versions of the reports become available.
• Reports are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
• Some reports may be available through other govinfo collections.

Types of Congressional Reports

House and Senate Reports

House and Senate Reports contain reports of congressional committees concerning proposed legislation and/or contain findings on matters under investigation.

Senate Executive Reports

Senate Executive Reports contain reports of the Committee on Foreign Relations relating to Treaties between the United States and foreign nations, which have been submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, or reports of various Senate Committees regarding nomination of individuals.

Conference Reports

Conference Reports are agreements on legislation that is negotiated between the House and Senate via conference committees. It is printed and submitted to each chamber for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval.

From the earliest days, differences on legislation between the House and Senate have been committed to conference committees to work out a settlement. The most usual case is that in which a bill passes one Chamber with amendments unacceptable to the other. In such a case, the Chamber that disagrees to the amendments generally asks for a conference, and the Speaker of the House and the Presiding Officer of the Senate appoint the “managers,” as the conferees are called. Generally, they are selected from the committee or committees having charge of the bill.

After attempting to resolve the points in disagreement, the conference committee issues a report to each Chamber. If the report is accepted by both Chambers, the bill is then enrolled and sent to the President. If the report is rejected by either Chamber, the matter in disagreement comes up for disposition anew as if there had been no conference. Unless all differences between the two Houses are resolved, the bill fails. (From “Our American Government”, H. Doc. 108-94, p. 34)

Searching Congressional Reports

You can locate Congressional Reports by:

• Using the Basic Search for keyword and metadata fielded searches,
• Using the Advanced Search; fields specific to the CRPT will display after you select Congressional Reports in the Refine by Collection column,
• Using the Citation Search to retrieve a single document in PDF format if you know the Congress number, report type and number, and doucment heading,
• Narrowing search results by clicking on links in the Refine Your Search panel on the left hand side of the page (the sections under Refine Your Search correspond to the metadata available for the Reports), and
• Browsing on the Congressional Reports browse page.

General govinfo Search Tips

Search Examples

Search by Congress Number and Chamber - These examples will search for reports from the House of Representatives from the 110th congress.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:crpt and congress:110 chamber:house
• Using Advanced Search,
  • Select Congressional Reports under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Number in the first box and select 110 in the second box.
  • Click + Additional Criteria and select Chamber of Congress then select House of Representatives in the next box.

Search for Conference Reports by Keyword - These examples will search for conference reports with the keywords fire and safety.

• Using Basic Search, enter: fire safety and confreport:true
• Using Advanced Search,
  • Select Congressional Reports under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Conference Report in the first box and select True in the second box.
  • Click + Additional Criteria and enter fire safety in the next box.

Search by Report Number - These examples will search for reports with 640 as the report number.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:crpt reportnum:640
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Documents under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Report Number in the first box and enter 640 in the second box.

Search by Congress Member - These examples will search for reports with Reid as the congress member.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:crpt and member:reid
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Reports under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Member in the first box and enter Reid in the second box.

Search by Keyword and Committee - These examples will search for reports from the agriculture, nutrition, and forestry committee with the keyword watershed

• Using Basic Search, enter: watershed and collection:crpt and committee:"agriculture, nutrition, and forestry"
• Using Advanced Search,
  • Select Congressional Reports under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Committee in the first box and enter "agriculture, nutrition, and forestry" in the second box.
  • Click + Additional Criteria and enter watershed

Search by Citation - These examples will search for House Report 110-640.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:crpt and citation:"H. Rept. 110-640"
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Reports under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Citation in the first box and enter H. Rept. 110-640 in the second box.
• Using Citation Search, select Congressional Reports from Select Collection box, select H. Rept. from Select Type box, select 110th Congress from Select Congress box, and enter 640 in the next box.

Sample Congressional Reports URLs

Sample Congressional Reports URLs

govinfo uses two key pieces of information to construct predictable URLs to reports and Details pages.

• Package ID is used to identify an individual report.
• Granule ID is used to identify volumes, parts or errata that may exist for a single report.

Details Page for a Congressional Report (Single Part or Volume)
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/{Package ID}
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CRPT-109srpt322

PDF File for a Congressional Report (Single Part or Volume)
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/pdf/{Package ID}.pdf
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-109srpt322/pdf/CRPT-109srpt322.pdf

HTML File for a Congressional Document (Single Part or Volume)
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/html/{Package ID}.htm
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-109srpt322/html/CRPT-109srpt322.htm

Details Page for a Part, Volume or Errata of a Congressional Document
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/{Package ID}/{Granule ID}
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CRPT-107srpt158/CRPT-107srpt158-vol2

PDF File for a Part, Volume or Errata of a Congressional Document
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/pdf/{Granule ID}.pdf
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-107srpt158/CRPT-107srpt158-vol2.pdf

XML File for a Part, Volume or Errata of a Congressional Document
Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/html/{Granule ID}.htm
Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-107srpt158/html/CRPT-107srpt158-vol2.htm

Congressional Reports Metadata Fields and Values

Metadata fields and values can be used to increase the relevancy of your searches. Metadata fields and values are used throughout govinfo for:

• Refining Your Search,
• Browsing Government Publications,
• Field Operators,
• Advanced Search, and
• Display on Details pages.

Metadata fields and values can be entered into the Basic Search box using field operators. The metadata fields and values available for Congressional Reports are listed in the table below, along with examples for each metadata field. Using Field Operators

Some of the metadata fields are made available for use in Advanced Search. The metadata values can be entered in the same format for the fields available on the Advanced Search Page. Using Advanced Search

Congressional Reports Citation Patterns

These patterns are available when creating searches using Congressional Reports citations.

In the Basic Search box, simply use one of the citation patterns listed in the Search Examples column below. If the report number value that you use is available on the website, the document will be returned.

*all terms in italics are newly accepted search patterns

Congressional Reports Related Resources

• Featured House, Senate and Joint Publications - House or Senate select documents published by Congress or jointly by the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.
• Conference Reports of the U.S. Congress - website for agreements on legislation that are negotiated between the House and Senate via conference committees.
• Congressional Documents - Documents of congressional committees that cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.
• Browse by Congressional Committee - Browse reports issued by individual committees, including Bills, Documents, and Hearings.
• Contact your local Federal Depository Library - Federal Depository Library Directory
• Purchase the Congressional Serial Set - From GPO's Online Bookstore